pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

AbortMeta.Exception.UnableToSaveStepInfoToRepository

Error message

AbortMeta.Exception.UnableToSaveStepInfoToRepository

What it means

AbortMeta.saveRep throws KettleException with this message when saving the Abort step's attributes (row_threshold, message, always_log_rows, abort_option) to the repository fails. The id_step is appended to the message for locating the failing record.

Solutions

1. Check the wrapped cause for the SQL error and repair repository connectivity/privileges.
2. Ensure abortOption is non-null before saveRep (initialize to a default in the step's default constructor).
3. Verify DB disk space and that the repository user can write to R_STEP_ATTRIBUTE.
4. Retry the save once the repository is healthy.

Example fix

// before
rep.saveStepAttribute( id_transformation, id_step, "abort_option", abortOption.toString() );
// after
rep.saveStepAttribute( id_transformation, id_step, "abort_option",
  abortOption != null ? abortOption.toString() : AbortOption.ABORT.toString() );

// ensure abortOption is initialized before saving
if ( meta.getAbortOption() == null ) { meta.setAbortOption( AbortOption.ABORT ); }

try { meta.saveRep( rep, metaStore, id_transformation, id_step ); } catch ( KettleException e ) { logError( "saveRep failed for step " + id_step + ": " + e.getMessage(), e ); }

When it happens

Trigger: rep.saveStepAttribute throwing on DB failure: connection loss, constraint violation, null abortOption (toString on null), or insufficient write privileges.

Common situations: Repository offline during save, abortOption field never initialized (null NPE wrapped as this error), DB out of space, concurrent edits locking rows.

Related errors

• ERROR_0003_Cannot_Save_Job_Entry
• JobEntryAddResultFilenames.UnableToSaveToRepo
• Edi2Xml.Exception.UnableToSaveStepInfoToRepository
• ERROR_0002_Cannot_Load_Job_From_Repository
• ERROR_0002

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bb465bc3f170c870. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/core/impl/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/abort/AbortMeta.java:176

        // Backward compatibility
        // existing transformations will have to maintain backward compatibility with yes
        boolean abortWithError = rep.getStepAttributeBoolean( id_step, 0, "abort_with_error", true );
        abortOption = abortWithError ? AbortOption.ABORT_WITH_ERROR : AbortOption.ABORT;
      }
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "AbortMeta.Exception.UnexpectedErrorInReadingStepInfoFromRepository" ), e );
    }
  }

  public void saveRep( Repository rep, IMetaStore metaStore, ObjectId id_transformation, ObjectId id_step ) throws KettleException {
    try {
      rep.saveStepAttribute( id_transformation, id_step, "row_threshold", rowThreshold );
      rep.saveStepAttribute( id_transformation, id_step, "message", message );
      rep.saveStepAttribute( id_transformation, id_step, "always_log_rows", alwaysLogRows );
      rep.saveStepAttribute( id_transformation, id_step, "abort_option", abortOption.toString() );
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "AbortMeta.Exception.UnableToSaveStepInfoToRepository" )
        + id_step, e );
    }
  }

  public String getMessage() {
    return message;
  }

  public void setMessage( String message ) {
    this.message = message;
  }

  public String getRowThreshold() {
    return rowThreshold;
  }

  public void setRowThreshold( String rowThreshold ) {

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)